Nature has a way of dealing with things.  When water flows over a rock for millennia, it is shaped and smoothed and tumbled into certain shapes, revealing its deepest characteristics.  

River rocks

Wind, snow, frost, and footsteps also contribute to the shaping of materials. Although snow is more transient and different in its crystal structure than sand, the two always seem similar to me in the way they are shaped by objects on which they fall, and the way the wind moves them.  Peaks and valleys and humps rise in snow, just as they do in sand.

wind-blown snow

The softness and curves of snow, shaped by the wind and the tree on which it fell, produced this "winter bud".  As I have said before, there is no substitute for a great photograph, and my goal is always to shoot the best and strongest images I can.  The photograph below features the most alteration I do to an image.  It was turned clockwise to be vertical, revealing not only the "bud" at the top, but the "stem", formed by a snow drift.

snow rose

With a slight breeze, snow shapes and surrounds existing bumps.

piñon in snow

As is the case with the surprisingly resilient adobe, which itself has been shaped by years of snow, rain, frost, and wind, the snow coats the wall, waiting for the sun's heat to alter its shape.  The late afternoon sun, emerging briefly from the clouds, gives the effect of fill light on the wall, while much of the rest of the landscape is thinly lit under the broken overcast.

adobe wall and snow

All seasons on our wonderful Planet Earth offer opportunities for discovery.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image@